In the next two months, India and China will seek a means to arrest the rise of the Great Wall coming up between them. The two sides will use Chinese Premier Wen Jiabaoâ€™s expected December visit to New Delhi to resolve some of the problems bedeviling relations between the two Asian giants.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Wen issued instructions to their respective special representatives and officials after a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Vietnam.

Wen said that to make his visit â€œproductiveâ€ the two sides needed â€œto discuss and reach a consensus on some major aspects.â€ The special representatives â€“ National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and Dai Bingguo â€“ will meet in Beijing at the end of November.

Menon said Singh and Wen had accepted the need to be sensitive to each otherâ€™s â€œcore issuesâ€ even while taking â€œthe relationship forward.â€ He avoided defining these core issues, saying only â€œwe will continue to hold discussions on the way to Wenâ€™s visit.â€ In the Indian case, this is being interpreted to mean the boundary issues, including Arunachal Pradesh, and Chinaâ€™s increased activity and interest in Kashmir. Tibet is seen is among Beijingâ€™s core concerns.

In a reference to the stapled issue question and the border issues, Menon said the â€œfull gamut of issuesâ€ would be included in the preparation for Wenâ€™s visit.

The two leaders had taken a â€œbroader viewâ€ of Sino-Indian strategic relations during their meeting, he said. Wen cited Singhâ€™s oft-repeated line that the world was big enough to â€œaccommodate the aspirations of both countries,â€ adding it was also big enough for the two to cooperate on many issues. â€œIndia and China have similar positions on many global issues,â€ said Menon. The two leaders agreed to work together on issues like climate change, counterterrorism and trade. Menon said the present suspension of certain bilateral defence exchanges would remain, but both sides would â€œwork on this issue.â€ Wen had informed Singh of steps Beijing was taking to address Indiaâ€™s concerns about Chinese trade barriers and the trade imbalance between the two countries.

The Singh-Wen interaction was described as â€œwarm and friendlyâ€. It was the tenth time the two have met in the past six years.

A concern for New Delhi will be that Wen, who has recently called for greater political freedom in China, has come under increasing criticism from his own party. He seems to have been the target of a critical signed editorial in Peopleâ€™s Daily two days ago and a recent CNN interview that he gave was initially blacked out in China. Indiaâ€™s expectation will be that foreign policy decisions, especially so late in the term of a Chinese administration, will reflect internal continuity.